Ibkr, schwab, etrade, and webull restricted memes to liquidation only as well. It was Saunders' piggy wiggly squeeze all over again. Nothing new. Big money fucks, small money gets fucked.
Actually, PDT was introduced following the burst of Nasdaq bubble to curb short-selling. This was the first major bear market since the inception of the Internet. Before then, except for the one-off 1987 Black Monday, we've never experienced anything so severe. I don't think rescuing the small fries from blowing themselves up was on the mind of these regulators.
%% MAYBE; but more to it than that since its a $25 k rule, with 4 turns.................... Also more to it than anti short selling; if that was the case they would + could with logic treat SPXS, like SPXU= almost the same short profits. [I went to Pig Wig, after hours but still a daytrade so to speak; + they tried to overcharge me on extra large eggs by $00.60/LOL I corrected them on trying to be a hog\pig @ my expence I never let fast rise prices rook me , depending on shelf price]
%% NOT sure a US resident cant do that\ but go back thru time tunnel, so to speak to sorry 2001\ PDT rule year. QQQ was $120. Sorry they did not have QID + PSQ\LOL. Some one told Courtney she said ''sorry'' too much\ She was born around 2001, college class; + so I said better say'' sorry'' too much than not say sorry enough... Sorry i noted leverage so much here
Going offshore is one route when you want no PDT rule. tvmarkets.com used to have 30:1 intraday leverage and 6:1 overnight with just 3k or 5k. This broker sits in Cayman Islands, you need to ask nicely. But they are doing it, I know it , because I asked them some years ago. Other options are prop firms, where you need a license in US, but you get decent leverage too.
You can trade micro index and yield futures instead of E-mini index and CBOT rate futures. Can also trade the mini VIX contract or spreads. You can get ultra low-risk trading with long/short futures spreads. These are called (inter-market) index spreads. You can also trade them on the Japanese exchange. Mini Nikkei and related products (https://www.jpx.co.jp/english/derivatives/products/domestic/225mini/01.html). A synthetic index (synthetic future) can be constructed by combining these long/short. Buy MES / Sell MYM ~ Synthetic Nasdaq (in a 1:1 ratio) Buy MNQ / Sell MES ~ Synthetic Tech Index (1:1) Buy MES / Sell MNQ ~ Synthetic S&P (2:1) Buy MES / Sell M225 ~ Synthetic US/JPN index spread (1:1)